


Lesser of Two Evils

by eerielake



Category: The Magicians (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-28
Updated: 2019-02-28
Packaged: 2019-11-06 17:58:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,410
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17944439
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eerielake/pseuds/eerielake
Summary: "Eliot's alive." It's out the second the doors shut. Margo turns on her heel, marches across the room, looks Quentin dead in the eye."Bullshit."or, the questers strategize and Quentin and Margo have a (long overdue) heart-to-heart





	Lesser of Two Evils

**Author's Note:**

> I won't be able to watch tonight's episode for another couple hours, so in the meantime I'm posting this scenario that's been on my mind for days

They meet in Fillory.

Between the mourning Fillorians and catching up on months of absence, Margo hasn't had time to leave Whitespire. Which works just fine for her. The more time she spends worrying about birthright boxes and bullshit agriculture disputes, the less time she has to spiral.

So, Quentin and the rest of the ragtag band of idiots she's inexplicably grown to care about come to her. Apparently the Monster is off playing seek-and-find in the cradle of civilization, which should buy them at least a few hours before it gets bored and comes looking for its favorite plaything. She clears out the throne room, feeling only mildly guilty when she shuts Fen out with the rest. She and El may have cared about each other, but the less Fen — or any of the Fillorians for that matter — know about the Monster, the better.

"Eliot's alive." It's out the second the doors shut. Margo turns on her heel, marches across the room, looks Quentin dead in the eye.

"Bullshit."

"It's true. Look, he broke out for a minute, just a minute, but it was him, Margo. I know it."

"He's right," Julia adds. "Something happened in the park. He—"

"What park? Start at the beginning. Quickly." Julia gives her a brief outline of Iris, who (surprise surprise) turned out to be a colossally self-righteous bitch like the rest of the gods. She may hate the monster for what it did to Eliot, but she can't fault its vendetta. She only interrupts when Quentin tries to gloss over Alice's involvement.

"Oh, so we're trusting Alice again, are we?" Quentin shoots her an impatient look.

"No, we're not. But if it weren't for her, Eliot would be trapped in Castle Blackspire right now, so—"

"If Eliot's even still in there."

"He is." He looks so determined. So vulnerable. Quentin always has had a bad habit of breaking his own heart.

"Q, sweetie. I'm sure whatever you saw was very convincing. But this thing, it likes to play games. It asked me..." Pause. Breath. "It asked me to teach it how to be more like Eliot. So we would like it more. Sick fuck thinks if it parades around in his skin long enough we'll love it."

"That's not what this was, okay, just— just trust me."

"How do you know? How do you know that, Quentin? It could just be toying with you. That's what it does. This thing has been in Eliot's body for months. We don't know what it knows, what kind of memories it has access to. Whatever it said to you—"

"It's not just what he said, it's how he said it. The Monster is cold and, and stiff and emotionless. It wouldn't be able to pull this off. Everything, everything was different. His voice, his composure, his  _eyes._ I know him, Margo. I know it was him. And you would've too." Margo searches his face for answers. She knows they're the two people in the world who love Eliot most. If she can trust anyone to be right about this, it's Quentin.

"All right. I believe you. Now, where does that leave us."

Julia speaks up again. "Shoshana and I found something. At Brakebills. We think whatever the gods took, they're building blocks for a new body. Or maybe its original body? It's looking for answers now."

"And we're going to help it," Quentin says. Josh and Kady, who had been silently absorbing the rest of this story, start spluttering protests.

"Now hold on," Josh says. "I'm all for helping Eliot, but are we sure this is the wisest decision? Surely there has to be some other way to get him out."

"Yeah, I don't feel great about giving a homicidal sociopath with godlike powers a shiny new body to play around in," Kady adds.

Margo settles into her throne and takes a breath. They're both right. She can't hand that kind of power over to a creature so dangerous even the gods are afraid of it. They should be looking for a way to kill it, or at the very least lure it back to Castle Blackspire. Even so—

"It's the only plan we have right now. Which makes it our best plan." Fuck the gods. She's getting Eliot back.

"You two can't be serious." Kady turns her rage on Quentin. "You of all people know what this thing is capable of. Not to mention that last time you decided to kill a god, you fucked all of magic. You really wanna test that shit again?" Quentin meets her gaze, jaw set.

"Look me in the eye and tell me you wouldn't do anything it took to get Penny back." Their staredown lasts only a few more seconds before, to everyone's surprise, Kady backs down first. Quentin lets out a troubled breath. "Look, I know this plan is stupid and dangerous, and I won't blame any of you if you don't want to help. But you're not going to stop me."

Julia is the first to reach out, wrapping a hand around Quentin's arm. "Of course I'm helping, Q. Whatever you need."

"Me too," Josh adds. "I wish there was a better way, but—" He trails off with a shrug. They all look to Kady. Her arms are crossed stiff against her chest, eyes away from the group. She finally looks back to them with a sigh.

"You're all idiots. But someone needs to keep you from getting yourselves killed, so I guess I'm in."

"Perfect. It's settled then." Margo rises from her throne. "You three will help the Monster track down the rest of its Potato Head pieces. Josh and I will stay here and look for a way to kill it. No way in hell are we letting that thing walk free once we have Eliot back." She scans each of their faces. "Good? Great. Get the fuck out."

They start to file out of the room, Kady and Julia bent towards each other in hushed conversation. Margo grabs Quentin's arm and steers him towards her chambers. She lets him go in the doorway and turns to make them both something to drink.

"Sit. We need to talk." Quentin sinks onto the foot of her bed. He looks like he hasn't slept in months. Considering how long he's been with the Monster, it's possible he hasn't. Margo sits next to him and passes over a glass.

"So. When were you two gonna tell me?" Quentin gives her an odd look, but he doesn't insult her intelligence by asking, "What?"

"There's nothing to tell," he says instead.

"Oh? That didn't sound like nothing. I mean, comparing yourself and El to Kady and the love of her life. I know I'm not the most sentimental person in the world, but I'm not an idiot."

"It's not... He doesn't..." He cuts himself off and downs half his drink. Oh. That self-sabotaging idiot.

"What did he do?"

"It doesn't matter."

"The hell it doesn't. I'm going to kick his ass."

"No, you're not."

"I am. We're gonna get that thing out of him, and then I'm gonna kill him." Quentin huffs a laugh, almost inaudible. Margo smiles back at him for a moment before setting her glass aside. "Look, Q. I'm sure you've figured this out by now, but Eliot... He's had a pretty fucked up life and he—" She stops for a breath, meets Quentin's gaze. "He doesn't think he deserves to be happy. Which generally means the more he wants something, the harder he tries to keep himself from getting it." Quentin looks into his glass, then a tapestry on the far wall. Anywhere but Margo's face.

"I appreciate it, Margo, but I can't think about that right now. I just... I need to focus on getting him back. I don't have room for anything else right now."

"Fair enough. Just promise you'll think about it sometime, okay?"

"I will." They sit in silence a few moments, leaning on each other, and fuck she needed this. Someone to hold her up, even for a minute. "They're right, you know. What we're doing, it's gonna break bad. It always does."

"Yeah. But it's what El would do for us." She stares him down until he looks back at her. "We're going to get him back. Whatever it takes. Right?"

"Yeah." Quentin wraps an arm around her shoulders and she settles against his chest. "Whatever it takes."

**Author's Note:**

> Comments are always appreciated. If you want, you can find me @eerielake on tumblr where I've been doing nothing but scream about queliot for the past week.


End file.
